Halloween Haul!

Hello friends, it's good to have you here!

Well, school is back in session and I thought I'd have so much time to blog and list things in my Etsy store, and...nope, that just hasn't happened! I honestly don't know how some of you guys do it.

But as usual, there is always time to thrift and yard sale, while the yard saling weather is still good. And I have to say, it has been very good to me lately. I live in a great area for yard sales with lots of old people in older homes, who are now in the process of down sizing. And of course, that means I am upsizing, or acquiring more stuff! Hehe...

Last week I was on my way to a church rummage sale (which was pretty much a bust, all I bought was a 50 cent planter) and stopped at the most amazing yard sale and I hit the jackpot!

Look at all that vintage Halloween!!!

I have never seen so much all in one place and here it is on my floor!

Some of these honeycomb paper decorations are amazing- check out the scarecrows and owl!

And there was Pyrex and pixies as well! That tan stripe 401 is just what I needed to complete my stack of stripes. I never find cute pixies around here, so even though these are not in perfect condition, they are most welcome.

I've been having a good run on Pyrex lately as well. A few pieces found at the thrifts, but mostly trading for some really good things- a future post coming up on that!

Ain't No Cure for the Summertime Blues

Hello Friends, it's good to have you here!

Well, summer is here and it brings with it a lot of change. First of all, of course the kids are home. And soooo bored. Hehe, I knew that was coming, so we have plenty of things to do, like 5 different camps for my daughter and my son is opening his own Etsy shop! He is following in his mom's footsteps, but selling things a nine-year old boy thinks is cool. Mostly he is going to be restoring and selling customized bathroom scales, which is a project we started here. Look for the grand opening of JaysonsKustomHouse in a couple of weeks!

For now, I am also trying to keep as busy as I can, and trying to do as much selling as I can in my antique booth and my Etsy shop. So, hey, help me out a bit and see if there's anything you like! Be sure to use the coupon code PIT20OFF for 20% off your purchase!

Maybe it's a coincidence, or maybe not, but I have been finding a lot of blue items lately. Yard sales and thrifts have been very good this month, and I have been finding tons of cool junk and Pyrex, of course.

First up, I found yet another milk glass cake plate. This makes 3 in the last 6 weeks or so. It's wedding season, so hopefully it won't stay in the booth long! And I thrifted my first set of clear bottomed Pyrex- I usually pass on these, but with Pyrex prices on the rise I thought it might be a good idea to get a set now. They are various shades of blue and are very pretty; hopefully someone will love them.

The same day I found this stack of 401s at an antique store. Now, I almost never buy things at antique stores (I mostly window shop- "doing research" I call it) but I couldn't pass up five bowls for $10.  The three primary blues are all unnumbered; two are in good condition, but one is pretty poor. (I'll make that a daily user, maybe I'll dishwasher it into a faux opal?) I am always trying to make up other Primary sets to go to the booth, and can definitely use the good ones. The pink is poor as well, but this is my first pink mixer in the wild, and it will display OK for now. The orange flameglo is pretty good; I haven't decided if I want to keep it yet.

 I also found my first piece of JAJ in a thrift store, a pattern called "Tuscany Vegetables". Altogether, it was a good day for Pyrex, with the clear bottom set, the stack of 401s and this JAJ all coming from two stores that day. Plus, these huge veggie salt and pepper shakers- I love Mr. Corn's jaunty moustache! 

Last week I went to a great yard sale- it almost made The List. (I keep a mental list of the top ten yard sales I've ever been to- this one was somewhere in the top twenty, for sure.) It was my favorite kind of sale- an older person in an older house in an older neighborhood. I bought some Pyrex, some other glass and the coolest lamp.

The Pyrex I bought was this snowflake 043, which came with a lid and is absolutely mint. I almost didn't buy it- it seems that the word has gotten out, even to the little old ladies, that Pyrex is collectible. The sticker on this had a price of $5, which the cheapskate in me thought was too much for a yard sale. Then I came to my senses and realized I would probably pay that or more in a thrift store in a heartbeat. And I didn't have this color in my collection yet, either, so duh...buy it!

And while word has gotten out about Pyrex being hot, apparently Hazel Atlas is still flying under the radar (at least at this yard sale). The pink, turquoise and yellow plates are all HA, as is the matching mug. The green is FireKing jadeite, and get this- they were all 10 cents each!

Then I bought this lamp from the same lady. I used to see these around every so often, years ago and never bought one. But they are few and far between anymore, so I popped. Good thing I did, because they are going for crazy money on Etsy! So guess where this is headed, LOL.... I also found a cool angular fiberglass laced shade, which for some reason I didn't photograph. I have quite a collection of these shades anymore; I never leave one behind that is in good condition and reasonably priced (like 50 cents!). Now I need some  more cool lamp bases to go with them!

Green seems to be a theme of my finds as well- on the same day I bought this vintage tablecloth at a thrift store. It still has its Simtex tag on it. Plus, it is large enough to fit my table- not always so easy to find in vintage linens!

And a little bit of green Pyrex, of course! This is the "Green Salad" promo from 1972, otherwise known as "Square Dot". Normally it is hard for me to get to thrifts right when they open, which I have always assumed is the best time to go. But this day I was able to get there early and found this gem on the bottom shelf. (And I did look all over for the matching salad utensils, to no avail.) It is absolutely mint and I love the color shading. Seeing this online, I never thought I would go for it, but in person it is stunning. For some reason lately, I am totally drawn to the brightly colored Pyrex- like Friendship and New Dots, and this will fit right in. Definitely going to keep this around for a while!

And  how about this amazing fan? I found it amongst the appliances at a thrift store. It was a little more than I like to spend, at $20, but it works great-totally a keeper! I just keep telling my kids not to put their fingers anywhere near it; a trip to the emergency room is not the kind of excitement I'm looking for this summer!

Yard Saling Away

Hello Friends, it's good to have you here!

Finally, the weather has warmed up and yard sales are sprouting everywhere! I had some great luck this past week. I hit a couple of rummage sales Thursday first.

I found a couple of vintage Hawaiian shirts at the first rummage sale- I thought it was going to be a bust for the longest time because I started in the housewares section and there was literally nothing but crap. I scoped out the clothing as a last resort and came up with a couple good ones- they are already listed in my Etsy store here.

I got to another rummage sale later in the afternoon just before it closed. And that means it was bag day- everything I could fit in a paper bag was $2. It also means that stuff was kind of picked over, so I definitely didn't pack the bag full. But I picked up a couple books and puzzles:

Also grabbed these art pieces. The oil painting is another vintage landscape for my collection at our cabin. That is really coming along, and I should probably do a post on that sometime. The empty frame is a simple but elegant art deco picture frame, which I always pick up whenever I find them. So much nicer than the frames they have at Michael's!

The little Hazel Atlas Moderntone sherbet glass was part of the bag sale, as were the cute fork and spatula. The fork is the Corningware Country Festival pattern. The speckled bowls are actually confetti Melmac, and are the first I have ever seen in black and white. Maybe they are "RARE HTF"? LOL  They will be listed in my Etsy store eventually too. 

This was another item I put in my bag- I'm going to let you guess what this is and then show you what we did with it later!

My husband took the kids to our local bike rodeo Saturday morning and I got to go driveway shopping. My son won 2nd place for his age group; I think he hasn't taken off his medal since then. But my prize was these pieces of Guardian Ware. I got all three for $1 each. The roaster is really huge and will bring a nice bit of $$ online.

I got these PBN horses at the same sale- it was a dollar sale, so everything there was $1. So, 5 paintings, $5! I am hoping to sell these as a group, I think they make an amazing "instant collection"!

More from the dollar sale- the Shiny Brites, lampshade and Homer Laughlin bowl. That bowl is the most stunning piece of stoneware I have ever seen. It's got a raised pattern of trees all around it. I don't know much about Homer Laughlin other than Fiesta, but I want to know more about this style. The only bad part is it has a bit of a chip on the rim and a crack there, but will be beautiful holding fruit on the table.

The Ponderosa plates are the only pieces of Pyrex I found. I have never seen the plates before, only the mugs. I'm sure these will go quickly in my Etsy store when I get them listed. The little brass swans were only a quarter; I actually have a couple of these already, they used to be my mother-in-law's.

It is hard to find bakelite radios anymore. I used to see them all the time and now they are definitely few and far between. I bought one a couple of months ago and now found this one- the only ones I've seen in a long time. It's an Admiral- doesn't work, but for $5, will definitely look great on a shelf. The alarm clock was only a quarter and that one works!

So that's the wrap up of my first real good weekend of yard sales, now here's what we did with that mystery item:

It's a bike rack! My husband painted it white and put it on my bike as a Mother's Day present. ;)

A Radioactive Red Fiestaware Find

Last weekend was our community-wide yard sale. My son (aka "Eagle Eye") and I had been looking forward to this for weeks, and it didn't disappoint. We were up and at'em by eight and many people were still just setting up their stuff. Perfect- we didn't miss anything!

At the first group of sales (in the churchyard) I bought this flamingo pink Pyrex casserole for $1. I love this size and to find one in pink was sweet!

 

I also bought these two awesome light-up religious icons. (I seem to have cornered the market lately on religious kitsch!) They're headed to the antique store booth.

 So is this Stangl ashtray:

I bought this vintage ring box from the same lady. I paid $5 for both the ashtray and ring box.

These 2 sets of salt and pepper shakers were $1 for both.

Remember my Kustom bathroom scale project? I found another one to work on this winter. It's all there and works fine, and as you can see, the price was right. I'm thinking about doing this one black and silver. 

But this was the find of the day:

This orange pitcher caught my eye. Of course, I picked it up and turned it over and noted that it said "fiesta Kitchen Kraft" on the bottom. Now, I know next to nothing about Fiestaware. I have some, but it's modern. (And truth be told, I actually like the HLC Riviera line stuff better, if I was going to collect it.) But my instincts told me it was going to be worth a lot more than the $3 price the lady had on it. I immediately walked over with money in hand (didn't even try to haggle on it) and she asked me if I wanted the 2 little pitchers as well. She was asking $3 for all three. 

The 2 little guys are not Fiesta and aren't in the greatest of condition, but are cute. But once I got home and did some research on the pitcher I knew I had a gem. It is a 2 pint covered jug, produced a few years after Fiesta was first launched, in about 1938-39. As you can see it is a bright red-orange color. This color was produced by HLC in the late 1930s using uranium oxide to develop the color. It contains a radioactive isotope and there are a couple YouTube videos out there that prove it with a Geiger counter. (More info here.) It is safe to use, and certainly won't hurt me sitting pretty on its shelf. But apparently, once the radioactivity of these pieces became known in the 70s and 80s many of them were destroyed, which makes this quite rare. I'm happy with my find, and it's a perfect color for fall. I think I'll keep it a while!

It Can't Hurt to Ask! (Secrets of the Hunt, Pt. 3)

Lately I've been doing a little thinking about the difference between being a "thrifter" and a being a "picker". I think with the popularity of shows like "American Pickers", those of us that buy vintage to resell want to glamorize it a little bit and call ourselves "pickers". After all, who doesn't want to travel the country and dig through piles of "rusty gold" for hidden treasures and then make some serious $$$ with a TV show, right? Yeah, me too.  :)

But for the most part, we stick to yard sales, flea markets and thrift stores. And buying stuff cheap that we can resell is still the name of the game and we do alright with it. (See my previous "Secrets of the Hunt" posts on how to do this, if you don't know already...)

But that's not really "picking"; that is, buying things that aren't actually for sale with a price tag already on it. To me, to be a picker, means that you have to find the vintage that's not already for sale and get the seller to part with it. You have to get to know people, knock on doors and just ask around to buy stuff.

More and more, I think this is going to be the way to go for those of us in this business. We all know that it's getting harder to find good stuff in thrift stores and yard sales. Stuff from before 1960 is just no longer that abundant in the second-hand marketplace.

With that in mind, try to think a little bit outside the box when it comes to buying vintage.

1) Make conversation with people. Oftentimes, even close friends and relatives don't realize how into this stuff you are. Even acquiantances and friendly people you see at thrift stores or yard sales. Remember my Giant Lamp? Well, it turns out the lady I bought that from invited me to go through her house and pick out some of the furniture that wasn't for sale yet. I've got an incredible late 1950s hi-fi coming my way from there.

2) Have a business card made. Even in this tech-crazy age, the act of giving someone your card strikes them with a permanence that they remember. They put it aside and when they have something to sell, they can pick it up and give you a call. I had 200 business cards made online for less than $20, and I think they've paid for themselves many times over.

3) Ask, Ask, Ask! The other day I stopped at a yard sale. It was two ladies in their 70s selling a bunch of kid stuff. Now, the last thing I need is more kid stuff. But more than anything, it was the incongruity of the situation that made me stop. I walked through all the tables of toys and racks of clothing and realized this was two ladies who had a children's consignment store they were liquidating. Not really seeing anything I needed, I did notice in the back of the garage was some items covered in old bedspreads. Obviously, they had covered the tools/snowblowers/etc. that were not for sale to keep people from trying to buy them.

However, it wasn't the tools, but the bedspread itself that I wanted:

I think the ladies were dumbfounded when I asked to buy the bedspread they covered the snowblower with!  I offered them a few bucks and they happily took it- they had no idea anyone would want something like that. To them, it had no value at all, so to get $3 for it was a bonus- and a win for me! It's a large full/queen  art deco pattern chenille, and in a tan/burgundy color scheme- perfect for my bedroom! (Sure beats covering up a snowblower!)

Some recent flea market finds

Just because I've been really busy doesn't mean that I don't make time to shop! I've been going to yard sales and the occasional flea market in search of great treasures for the shop. (Even though I've been neglecting my shop something terrible these days, I have still been buying stock. Just have to list it!)

It's yard sale season around here and I have probably been to a few dozen over the past couple of weeks. But it is getting harder to find good stuff, definitely. Most of the time it's cheap modern junk and when I do find some vintage it's often overpriced. *sigh...* I guess we're too trendy! :)

The only real good thing I found at a yard sale was this:

A 1940s Bakelite weather station for $2. It works great; I've been wanting one of these for a long time, but didn't want to buy a new one. This one has style! We actually use a barometer quite a bit for fishing; it's usually not even worth going if its over 30 (as it is today!) 

I actually bought the weather station at the same estate sale as the Giant Lamp- they've been having a yard sale about every 2 weeks trying to get the place cleaned out. I bought a couple more items of clothing there, but that was the only yard sale I went to that I even bought anything at.

We also have a weekly flea market here that even though it's close, is quite hit-or-miss as far as quality goes. I hadn't been yet this year, but I'm glad I stopped by this weekend. 

I found this great vintage tablecloth. I don't think I've ever seen a palm tree-themed one before, so I snapped it up for $3. (I don't care that it's 54" square and doesn't fit my table. :P)

I love vintage aviation stuff, especially flight bags. I found this one from BOAC (now known as British Airways) from the 60s. I had to have it for $3, and it's a keeper. I know I need to sell some of this stuff, but not this- it's the perfect size for overnights and is just so classy. I have a vintage plaid flight bag that I actually take as a carry-on when I fly; its amazing how much I can fit in it and how it always makes people smile when they recognize it. Same deal with this one!

You had me at 'Giant Lamp'

It's funny how things happen sometimes. Late Saturday afternoon I was playing a band concert. I had been to a couple yard sales earlier in the day; hit some of my usual haunts and came home with only one item- a gorgeous 1940s rayon embroidered bedspread and set of shams:

They are in great condition except for one thing- unfortunately, the lady I bought them from had wrapped the set in masking tape (WTF?!) to keep them together, and now there are sticky tape spots on it. I don't know if I can hand wash it- I'll try one of the shams first- or dry clean it.  I was going to put it in the store, but once my daughter saw it, she fell in love with it (it's pink, mom!). If I can get the sticky parts clean, it can be on her bed- I think it will go nicely with her art deco bedroom suite. (I'll try to get a better photo once they're washed and ironed and on her bed ;)

So that was all I found in the morning- definitely a 'quality' over 'quantity' yard sale day.

....Until I got to talking to one of my band mates at intermission that afternoon, and she was mentioning about the yard sale she had going at her parent's house. She started to laugh when she was describing the 'giant orange lamp' her parents had from the 60s or 70s, and how no one in their right mind would probably want it.

And she went on to describe it, and then mentioned that her dad had been a pack rat and had boxes of shoes and clothing that had never been worn...Excuse me, I think I hear someone calling my name... :)

As soon as the concert was over, I was there.

I can't believe there was this much good stuff left late at the end of the 2nd say of the sale. Makes me really wish I had been there first thing Friday morning!

A men's Pendleton blazer.

A ladies' knit pant suit in orange.

A vintage pea coat, made by Fox & Knapp (maker of USN issue coats) something I've wanted for myself for a long time. Going to the cleaner's tomorrow!

This awesome 1970s boy's hot rod bedspread- never used. The other side has pictures of VW beetles!

A pair of vintage rockabilly style crepe-soled oxfords which fit me perfectly!

The first thing that caught my eye (other than the giant lamp, of course) was this Japanese robe. I have no idea what the characters mean, but it's very old and I have a sense that it is a 40s or 50s souvenir. It's printed cotton with origami birds that look like they're flying through the clouds. I'd like to find out more about it if anyone knows anything about them.

And of course the lamp. It's almost 4 feet high, orange fat lava pottery with a teak top, and that huge original shade. I love it- it's awesome. I just don't have a place for it in my house. I already called my brother and told him that he is the proud owner of a gigantic mod lamp ;)

Flea Market Friday: Yard Sale Scores!

The best yard sales are held on Thursdays around here. I discussed this a little bit here, but I think it has to do with needing an extra day to sell a large volume of things. Usually Thursday sales are "estate" sales held by older people in older houses- just the kinds of sales I like! And to top it off the dear little old lady whose house it was (in her late 80s I think) commented on how much she liked my dress and that she wondered if I made it. (I didn't, but I have 5 day dresses all alike-just different fabrics- which I thrifted at one shot, which will be a Sunday outfit post one day.)

Yesterday's sale was no exception. I had been to a garage sale at this house a few years ago and bought some killer stuff. Mostly I remember buying stacks of vintage pulp mystery novels for 10 cents each.  I have been kicking myself ever since for not buying the whole lot of them- probably around 100 were left when I was done picking the ones I wanted. I was hoping there would be more this time, but sadly not.

But I did get some other cool stuff. Literally.

Did you ever wonder what people used before those re-usable blue ice packs came out? Me neither, but now we all know. All three of these are steel cans filled with some sort of liquid. I have one in the freezer now and will test it out on our next picnic. I thought I already had a complete vintage picnic set, with the basket and the thermos, etc., but now I know it wasn't actually complete until now. 

I got all 3 for a quarter- worth it for the graphics alone! I'm guessing these are from the 50s, going by the car and the clothes on the package.

I am such a sucker for vintage lamps, especially when they come in pairs and are cheap ($3). These did come with shades, but unfortunately not tiered fiberglass ones.  If I do decide to use these I might put the original burlap shades back on, or pilfer some of the tiered shades from my other lamps. 

Otherwise they might go to my Etsy store.

I also found these great 1940s vintage Christmas candles for $3 for all 4. The bases are bakelite, the "candles" are rolled paper and they all work. I have a bunch of vintage red window candles already, but didn't have quite enough. Now I have a couple to spare.

This was the most serendipitous find. My express purpose for going out this morning was to buy another blueberry bush for our berry patch. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of putting a rather large, wet, dirty and berry-stained plant in the car, so I brought a large trash bag along. But after stopping at the estate sale I had this great galvanized tub ($3) to carry it in. I always buy these whenever I find them (which isn't often) because they are so versatile (and did I ever mention that I have a love affair with galvanized stuff? :) Plus this has it's original label, and it's a shade smaller- 3 gal- than the usual wash tub.